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A win to start the year for a change

For the first time in the Johnno II era, we’ve managed to start the year with a win, beating NUIG in the first round of the FBD by 0-11 to 0-9 at Garrymore. I didn’t make it across the Shannon today and so had to put up with very infrequent updates and some very gauche musical choices from Angelina on her afternoon “sports” show on Midwest but, thankfully, PJ was at the match this afternoon and he kept me abreast of developments via a barrage of text messages. Oh, the wonders of technology.

From what PJ had to say – an account largely corroborated by Mike Finnerty in his report for Midwest – it was a lively enough affair, played on a day that was positively screaming out for a good game of football to grace it. We fielded the strongest ever side I’ve seen us put out in the FBD, with only five changes to the starting line-up compared with the All-Ireland quarter-final against Meath last August. Of the quintet coming in, only one – Alan Feeney at full-back – was a newcomer to the inter-county scene, with 2009 squad members Chris Barrett, Mikey Sweeney and Mark Ronaldson all getting starting berths while David Clarke regained his rightful position between the sticks.

From the sound of it, it was a close match but it was one in which we had our noses in front for most of the time. Mark Ronaldson – undoubtedly Man of the Match, according to both Mike and PJ – knocked over three early frees and points from play by Aidan O’Shea and Trevor Mortimer pushed us 0-5 to 0-2 ahead at one stage. NUIG – who had Galway regulars Sean Armstrong (is that lad ever going to leave uni?), Gareth Bradshaw as well as our own Ciaran Conroy in their ranks – then hit back to level before Ronaldson bagged his fourth, this one from play, to send us in a point up at the break.

Ardnaree’s James Burke (who, incidentally, wasn’t named in the FBD panel the other week) replaced Trevor Howley (who, according to PJ, got a clatter in the first half) and he slotted in at wing-back, with Peadar Gardiner shifting across to centre-back for the second half. Local boy Jimmy Killeen also came on for his senior county bow on his home turf, replacing Mikey Sweeney, and, as events transpired, he claimed a significant say in how the game played out.

The second half was a close enough affair too, with NUIG drawing level with us twice before we edged two clear of them with around ten minutes to go. Ronaldson weighed in with two of these and Neil Douglas, who had come on for Pat Harte, notched the other one on his first senior appearance for his county. NUIG then cut our lead to the minimum and when Keith Higgins was ordered off on a second yellow (no complaints with the decision, according to PJ), it began to look like we might get caught at the death. This, however, was where Jimmy Killeen demonstrated his local hero status by lamping over a free from way out near the sideline to give us the insurance point we needed. We ran out deserved two-point victors at the end.

Mark Ronaldson, with his haul of seven points, was the star of the show but Aidan O’Shea was also to the fore, being the happy recipient of plenty of Route 1 ball that he made good use of. Ronan did well about the middle, according to PJ, but he also felt there was a fair bit of the usual arsing and messing around the middle third. Well, it is only the middle of January, I suppose.

The new rules appeared to cause the same kind of confusion in Garrymore as they did elsewhere this weekend, in particular the closed fist rule, breaches of which were constantly being pulled up by the ref. We did better than them when it came to claiming marks, by all accounts, and it’ll be interesting to see how well we do with this particular rule over the course of the spring.

That’s it, then: a welcome win to start the year and with matches to come against Sligo IT (who beat Roscommon by a point today) and Roscommon, the giddy heights of an FBD final appearance is starting to beckon for us. If we do manage to get that far, then we’ll surely be set for a second spring clash with Joe Kernan’s non-collectively training (nod, nod, wink, wink – eh Johnno?) new charges. Mike said that Johnno observed there was “plenty of bite” in this afternoon’s encounter and, if we end up facing Galway twice in quick succession over the next month or so, we can expect plenty more of the same in the weeks to come too.

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4 thoughts on “A win to start the year for a change”

Thanks WJ for this report which is the first news I got of the 10 campaign -I was far from the radio yesterday so logged on last night- Now you’d be the best judge WJ but that must be the strongest team start for us in FBD recently most of the heavy gang there and a spattering of young bucks Maybe Jonno is trying to establish a winning mentality in this bunch of players way to go as far as i can see We’ve had enough of the excuses coming out our ears strategy .
How come Tom Parsons wasn’t with IT Sligo yesterday?

It certainly is the strongest team I’ve seen us put in out in the FBD for some time: if you look at the lineups in the FBD last year and the year before, there’s no comparison. We did give some of the fringe players a run in the second half yesterday and hopefully we’ll see more of this in the next two games because I doubt if we’ll see widespread experimentation in the NFL campaign this year (which, given all those long away trips, could well be a tough battle for survival).

I don’t know what the story is with Tom but I’m glad he’s getting game time with us and not with Sligo IT.

I know I shouldn’t be getting worried or worked up about our first game of the year but I had hoped that JOM had seen what we all saw in Croke park last August. Trevor Howley would be better employed at corner back come the business end of the year and both Vaughan and Higgins are better off in the half back line. Have the management learned lessons from the Meath game?

It is probably a bit too early to be getting worked up but you’re right on all counts there, Richard. If we line out in the backs in that way again this year, then we’re simply asking to be taken apart at the back in the way we were by Meath in August. Have we learned any lessons from that defeat? Too early to tell, I suppose, but how our line up develops over the spring will tell us all we need to know in that respect.